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25040Venturebeat.comQualcomm optimizes Snapdragon processor for Google’s AR platform Tangohttp://venturebeat.com/2016/06/28/qualcomm-optimizes-snapdragon-processor-to-run-googles-tango/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/28/qualcomm-optimizes-snapdragon-processor-to-run-googles-tango/#respondWed, 29 Jun 2016 01:00:56 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1989566Qualcomm said today it is optimizing its Snapdragon family of processors to run Google’s Project Tango augmented reality technology. The world’s biggest mobile chip maker announced that its Snapdragon 652 and 820 processors both support Tango, a technology that enables someone to use a tablet or smartphone with animated information overlaid on the real world. Tango […]
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Qualcomm said today it is optimizing its Snapdragon family of processors to run Google’s Project Tango augmented reality technology.

The world’s biggest mobile chip maker announced that its Snapdragon 652 and 820 processors both support Tango, a technology that enables someone to use a tablet or smartphone with animated information overlaid on the real world. Tango can, for instance, allow someone to literally visualize what a piece of furniture would look like in their own home. The Qualcomm support means that Tango, which has support from phone makers such as Lenovo, could get into the market more easily.

Qualcomm said that future Snapdragon 800 series and 600 series processors will support Tango. All Tango sensors and algorithms will be hosted by the Snapdragon processor, alleviating the need for extra processors in a mobile system. The total power consumed is less than 2 watts, low enough to be used in a smartphone.

This leaves both the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit free to support user applications while keeping power consumption within reason.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2016/06/28/qualcomm-optimizes-snapdragon-processor-to-run-googles-tango/feed/01989566Qualcomm optimizes Snapdragon processor for Google’s AR platform TangoQualcomm launches virtual reality dev kit for Snapdragon mobile chipshttp://venturebeat.com/2016/03/14/qualcomm-launches-virtual-reality-dev-kit-for-snapdragon-mobile-chips/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/14/qualcomm-launches-virtual-reality-dev-kit-for-snapdragon-mobile-chips/#respondMon, 14 Mar 2016 11:30:58 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1889841Qualcomm is introducing its virtual reality software development kit (SDK) for Snapdragon-based smartphones and virtual reality headsets. The mobile-chip giant wants to stoke demand for the already red-hot VR business by making it easy for developers to create games and apps that run on Snapdragon-based hardware. The company’s Snapdragon 820 chip can be used in […]
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The mobile-chip giant wants to stoke demand for the already red-hot VR business by making it easy for developers to create games and apps that run on Snapdragon-based hardware. The company’s Snapdragon 820 chip can be used in VR hardware that runs a variety of apps. VR and augmented reality are expected to be a $120 billion business by 2020, according to tech advisor Digi-Capital. All this means that future VR devices will be much more graphically impressive than current hardware, and the software for it will be easier for developers to create.

The kit provides developers with access to advanced VR features, allowing them to simplify development and attain significantly improved VR performance and power efficiency with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processors for Android smartphones and upcoming headsets. The kit will be available free for developers in the second quarter of 2016 through the Qualcomm Developer Network.

The SDK can help developers determine how to spread a processing workload across a bunch of processing cores in an efficient way. The cores have to keep up with the motion sensors and rendering tasks, or the person could get sick.

The Snapdragon VR SDK will have features like digital signal processing sensor fusion, allowing it to combine data from gyroscopes and accelerometers via the Snapdragon Sensor Core. It enables faster transformation of rendered images in 3D, stereoscopic rendering with lens correction, and layering of menus and other interfaces in the virtual world. It also enables better power management.

“We’re providing advanced tools and technologies to help developers significantly improve the visual user experience of next-generation virtual reality applications like games, 360 degree VR videos, and a variety of interactive education and entertainment applications,” said Dave Durnil, senior director of engineering at Qualcomm, in a statement. “VR will be a new paradigm for how we interact with the world, and we’re excited to help mobile VR developers more efficiently deliver compelling and high-quality experiences on upcoming Snapdragon 820 VR-capable Android smartphones and headsets.”

Overall graphics effects and lighting will be much better. Qualcomm will show Qualcomm-generated demos at the Game Developers Conference this week on Samsung hardware.

“It’s an order of magnitude difference,” said Tim Leland, vice president of product management for visual processing at Qualcomm in an interview with GamesBeat. “We can’t show what we are doing with partners yet, but it will show where we are going.”

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/14/qualcomm-launches-virtual-reality-dev-kit-for-snapdragon-mobile-chips/feed/01889841Qualcomm launches virtual reality dev kit for Snapdragon mobile chipsQualcomm’s new chips include a Snapdragon that powers next-gen wearableshttp://venturebeat.com/2016/02/11/qualcomms-new-chips-include-a-snapdragon-that-powers-next-gen-wearables/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/11/qualcomms-new-chips-include-a-snapdragon-that-powers-next-gen-wearables/#respondThu, 11 Feb 2016 12:30:06 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1873766Qualcomm decided to have a chip party today, and here’s the one with the salsa: a new Snapdragon Wear Platform that will power the next generation of wearables. The world’s biggest mobile chipmaker also launched a new modem for faster data networking and new Snapdragon processors that will make mainstream consumer devices better at sensing, […]
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Qualcomm decided to have a chip party today, and here’s the one with the salsa: a new Snapdragon Wear Platform that will power the next generation of wearables.

The world’s biggest mobile chipmaker also launched a new modem for faster data networking and new Snapdragon processors that will make mainstream consumer devices better at sensing, imaging, and communication. These announcements, made during the company’s analyst meeting today, are part of its continuing bid to be at the heart of the most innovative mobile devices of the Internet generation.

Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, considers these chips an important part of his strategy to win in core markets, such as smartphones, and with core technologies, such as computing and connectivity. He then plans to take these core technologies into adjacent markets, including the Internet of Things, mobile computing (wearables), networking, and cars.

Qualcomm is investing in a few of the largest, most profitable opportunities, including data centers, small cells, and verticals such as health care.

Above: Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The X16 modem is a gigabit-class LTE chip set that can handle wireless download speeds up to 1 gigabit per second, which is a good deal faster than the slow speed that my T-Mobile iPhone 6 chugs along at when I’m watching YouTube videos while driving.

Kidding aside, the Snapdragon X16 LTE modem enables streaming of 360-degree virtual reality content and faster, more seamless access to cloud-based applications and services. The X16 chip is the first built on a new 14-nanometer manufacturing process, which will spawn a whole generation of smaller, faster, and cheaper semiconductors. The chip will be in commercial products in the second half of the year.

“Qualcomm wins the ‘first to 1 Gbps race’ which is important for bragging rights, but more significant in how much of a lead they have over everyone else,” said Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “From an industry standpoint, at these speeds, you have to question how quickly carriers start beaming the signals to our homes, replacing cable service. Another very important piece of Qualcomm’s announcement is that they introduced a modular modem architecture, which could enable them to either cut their costs by two-thirds with the same output, triple their output with the same resources, or something in-between. I will be interested to see impacts, if any, to Huawei, Intel, Samsung, and even MediaTek. Qualcomm must execute flawlessly on this for it to make a difference.”

Meanwhile, the Snapdragon SOC 625, 435, and 425 chips are processors that show Qualcomm can target multiple segments with the same core chip designs. These chips will take high-end modem, imaging, and sensor technology to more affordable devices. The chips will be sampling to customers in mid-2016 and will arrive in commercial products in the second half.

“The new Snapdragon 625, 435, and 425 are focused on the heart of the Chinese phone market where companies like MediaTek and Huawei are doing well with their chips,” said Moorhead. “Qualcomm is bringing 14nm SoCs to this level, a first, which means they are small, sometimes smaller, and power-efficient, but also meet the dreaded 8 CPU core count many Chinese consumers have enjoyed. While a custom core would be better, Qualcomm is delivering what is currently being asked for.”

The Snapdragon 625 is a 14-nanometer, eight-core ARM-based processor that offers a 35 percent reduction in power consumption compared to the last generation. It has an X9 LTE modem with support for 4G+ and download speeds that are three times as fast as traditional LTE devices.

The Snapdragon 435 has an X8 LTE modem and multimedia and visual features, supporting 1080p high-definition video at 60 frames per second. It has image sensor processors that support 21-megapixel graphics and PC-cla graphics with the Adreno 505 graphics core.

The Snapdragon 425 has computer vision features and an X6 LTE modem, and it will be targeted at China and emerging markets.

Meanwhile, the Snapdragon Wear system-on-a-chip (SoC) and Platform is an all-in-one chip for wearables. Raj Talluri, senior vice president of product management at Qualcomm, said that the company already powers the majority of Android Wear smartwatches with its Snapdragon 400 processor. Now the Snapdragon Wear 2100 SoC will enable wearables with sleeker designs, longer battery life, smart sensing, and always-connected experiences. It will be targeted across the mobile, fashion, and sports ecosystems.

LG plans to use the Qualcomm chip in its next generation of wearables. The new chip is 30 percent smaller than the previous one, has 25 percent lower power consumption, and features better sensors. Qualcomm said that its technologies are already used in 65 wearables in 30 countries, with 50 more expected to launch later this year.

Alex Katouzian, senior vice president of product management at Qualcomm, said in a statement that the company designs all of its chips with scalability in mind, from low-end tasks to those at the high end. That allows the company to deploy custom chips quickly across broad market spaces and at a variety of price points.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/11/qualcomms-new-chips-include-a-snapdragon-that-powers-next-gen-wearables/feed/01873766Qualcomm’s new chips include a Snapdragon that powers next-gen wearablesQualcomm bags Audi for its automotive chiphttp://venturebeat.com/2016/01/05/qualcomm-bags-audi-for-its-automotive-chip/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/05/qualcomm-bags-audi-for-its-automotive-chip/#respondTue, 05 Jan 2016 20:34:08 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1859385Qualcomm announced today that car manufacturer Audi is adopting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 602a processor for its next-generation cars. Car electronics are a huge opportunity, and they take up more than 200,000 of the 2.4 million square feet of space at the 2016 International CES, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas this week. Qualcomm also […]
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Car electronics are a huge opportunity, and they take up more than 200,000 of the 2.4 million square feet of space at the 2016 International CES, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas this week.

Qualcomm also announced automotive versions of its Snapdragon 820 processor. In a demo, a simulated car with the processor was able to identify when a driver looked away from the windshield and therefore appeared to be distracted.

“The entire industry is changing,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, at the press event. “Ten years ago, we weren’t even here. Now every company is using this technology.”

Qualcomm also talked about its Snapdragon 212 Smart Home reference platform, as well as platforms for robots, drones, and wearables.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/05/qualcomm-bags-audi-for-its-automotive-chip/feed/01859385Qualcomm bags Audi for its automotive chipNew venture sets modest goal – the ‘perfect smartphone’http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/17/new-venture-sets-modest-goal-the-perfect-smartphone/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/17/new-venture-sets-modest-goal-the-perfect-smartphone/#respondWed, 18 Dec 2013 00:08:25 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=873728What would the “perfect smartphone” look like? A new startup, OnePlus, has decided to find out. Last month, one Pete Lau resigned as vice president of China-based smartphone maker Oppo. Since that resignation, rumors have been circulating that he wanted to build a new brand with Cyanogen, maker of CyanogenMod, an open source customized firmware […]
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What would the “perfect smartphone” look like? A new startup, OnePlus, has decided to find out.

Last month, one Pete Lau resigned as vice president of China-based smartphone maker Oppo. Since that resignation, rumors have been circulating that he wanted to build a new brand with Cyanogen, maker of CyanogenMod, an open source customized firmware distribution for some Android mobile devices that offers such enhancements as CPU overclocking and support for Bluetooth tethering. Lau had helped Oppo’s high-end N1 become the first smartphone to support CyanogenMod as an option.

On the day that Lau announced his resignation, Cyanogen’s Steve Kondik posted on Google+ that the two of them would create a phone fusing “truly amazing software with the highest quality hardware available.” Lau similarly posted that their efforts “may change the world of Android.” No need to set the bar too low.

This week, Lau announced that he is forming OnePlus, which will “spare no expense” in its quest for the perfect smartphone. On the OnePlus website, the shoot-for-the-moon aim is apparent. “Never Settle,” it proclaims in a giant headline. “We don’t accept the excuse that you can’t create a perfect phone at a disruptive price.”

In a posting on the OnePlus forum, Lau asks for reader views on “AMOLED vs IPS screens, 8974AB vs 8974AC processors, and your views on external memory and battery life.” Some reports have suggested that the OnePlus perfect smartphone will contain the upcoming system-on-a-chip Snapdragon 800 2.5 GHz processor, the MSM8974AC. A product is expected sometime in the first six months of 2014, sold exclusively online, but it’s not yet clear if it’s initially for the Chinese market. Similarly, it’s also unclear who is funding the effort, or even where OnePlus is physically based, although the founder’s background indicates it might be in China.

One question: If the goal of a perfect smartphone were actually ever reached, would the stars go out?

Video game makers haven’t always been thrilled about making mobile games. But Qualcomm hopes to change that. Raj Talluri — the senior vice president of product development at the San Diego, Calif.-based mobile chip maker — addressed the DICE Summit, an elite game industry event in Las Vegas, to wake them all up. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors have been used in more than 500 million Android devices. And smartphones are selling at a rate of more than 500 million a year. That’s a pretty large market to target.

Soon enough, it won’t just be numbers that are attractive. Mobile chips are coming soon with as many as eight cores. That means that these low-power chips will be able to come close to the processing power of current-generation consoles on smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. And mobile networks will be carrying data at 150 megabits a second. That will make your cable modem look slow.

We interviewed Talluri at the DICE Summit. Here’s an edited transcript.

VentureBeat: So your talk was telling everybody about the size of the opportunity out here.

Raj Talluri: Yeah, and the technology that we do.

VB: Do you get any debate about that right now? In years past, these guys would have looked at the smartphone as a platform that couldn’t do what you wanted it to do. They would have ignored it. There are people who experimented with smartphones, and they did very well, but for the most part, the more hardcore teams were still working on consoles. What’s interesting about the timing right now, and how this is changing? Are you seeing some of the game developers change their minds?

Talluri: It’s a couple of things. One is performance, what processors have done in the last few years. They were like little toys before. You couldn’t do anything compared to what you can do now. That’s one thing. The other aspect of it is that the market opportunity is much bigger now. Selling 500 million smartphones. Another thing we’re finding is that some of the traditionals may not be doing it, but almost every one of them at least has a division that does mobile. They’re getting into it. And there are newcomers that have made a killing.

Obviously, there’s money to be made. The numbers are real. For a long time, it was only on iOS, but I think the Android Marketplace is working out. I talk to people now, and they’re able to make money on Android. Discovery is working. Operator billing is working. Free-to-play is working. Lots of things are changing now. But we’re still at the beginning. There’s a lot more to come.

VB: Does the ecosystem seem fairly complete to you?

Talluri: No. The ecosystems can always be better. I think it’s still in the beginning stages. Honestly, to me, this concept that you have to buy a game or get a game, and it comes on one platform one day, and then you have to buy it on another platform — in time, it’ll go away. I mean, how many times have I bought a game on Xbox or whatever, and then I have Windows Live on my phone, and it doesn’t work together? What happened? Why don’t I get the mobile version when I get the other version? Those kinds of things should go away. There shouldn’t be any real reason for it. I think all these things will happen with time.

VB: I find I’m looking forward to 150 megabits a second than anything else. [Laughs]

Talluri: It’s on the way. We showed it in the booth. We had it running.

VB: What is that going to do for gaming on mobile devices?

Talluri: Clearly, latency, when you play — it’s not just connected to bandwidth. It’s also about how the network is structured and how much data you can transfer. Those are the two big things. I think that this whole client-powered thing will become bigger, too. We’ll perform a lot of the work on the phone. We’ll do some more of it in the cloud and then ship it back and forth. It’s no longer about having all the processing in one place. That’s a paradigm shift that will happen.

VB: Something like OnLive, where you can do more cloud gaming?

Talluri: Yeah, but not just cloud gaming. Some of those things are not very scalable. You put so much computing in one place, but you can’t scale it. You undertake it when you have a powerful computer on both sides, and high bandwidth in between. It’s distributed gaming, more than cloud gaming. That’s how I think about it. You have a pretty powerful processor on this side, too.

VB: Predicting when we’ll get 150 megabits per second of bandwidth is a hard thing, though, right? You build the capability into the chipsets, but what’s AT&T’s schedule like, or Verizon’s schedule? Once they build it, will the capacity be upheld? The capacity of 3G and 4G seemed great until people started using it and sending YouTube videos all over the place, and then it crashed the whole system.

Today during a small Q&A session with press at CES, Qualcomm chief executive Paul Jacobs elaborated on his thoughts on Windows Phone. Qualcomm’s chips power Windows Phone devices, and it’s also making inroads into Windows RT with Samsung’s ATIV tablet.

When asked how he thinks Microsoft’s mobile platform will be able to compete against the iPhone and Android, Jacobs said:

It’s too early to call the game one way or another. I never count out Microsoft out because they’re willing to put a lot of effort into things, they play the long game, they’ve got a lot of resources, they have a lot of benefits in the sense of tie-ins to enterprise software and Xbox … I think there’s definitely a great opportunity there [in Windows Phone]. We’re investing heavily in that technology.

While his comments were certainly self-serving, Jacobs’ faith in Windows Phone seemed genuine. Qualcomm is already the leading Android smartphone CPU provider, so it’s not like the company is hurting for business. Qualcomm has the luxury of being able to sit and wait until Windows Phone actually takes off — and it seems like it isn’t letting the platform’s slow initial sales scare it off.

Anand Chandrasekher (pictured right) was once the technical assistant to Craig Barrett, the former chief executive of Intel. He made sure Barrett’s slide shows worked right. And then he went on to become a senior executive running Intel’s PC chips business.

Now, after a hiatus, he has jumped ship to mobile in a big way. After joining a startup, Chandrasekher has now joined mobile chip giant Qualcomm as its chief marketing officer and made his first public appearance today with John Jackson (pictured right), the vice president of research at IDC, at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco. He noted that he won’t just copy Intel’s marketing game plan in his new job.

“You’re not going to see Qualcomm Inside,” he joked.

Qualcomm’s market capitalization is $103 billion. But now Chandrasekher says it will start spending money in a “concerted and focused manner” on making the brand better known.

“For that size of company, we are relatively unknown,” he said. His job will be to grow the company’s image and promote its sub-brands (such as its Snapdragon processor) as well, but without subverting the brands of its customers. (Intel has frequently been accused of doing so).

“We will always be partnership driven,” he said, noting that customers can always opt out of Qualcomm’s own ingredient marketing if that’s what they want.

You could see a certain irony in a man who was once the biggest advocates of the PC now promoting the smartphone and tablet revolution. But things change. Chandrasekher said that the landscape in mobile continues to change fast.

“In 2006, Nokia seemed unassailable,” he said. “Android and the Apple iPhone didn’t exist. This is not an industry where you can rest on your laurels.”

Chandrasekher said part of his job is to make sure that developers take advantage of the silicon chips that Qualcomm makes.

“If you don’t, our hardware is a nice toaster,” he said.

He said Qualcomm is focused on emerging markets like China and Latin America in addition to the U.S. The company wants to get its chips into smartphones and tablets being sold in all of those markets.

“You’ll see us invest in those markets,” he said. And over time, consumers will come to know Qualcomm, if Chandrasekher does his job right.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/08/ex-intel-executive-comes-out-as-qualcomms-chief-marketing-officer-and-he-loves-mobile-devices-even-more-now/feed/0571855Ex-Intel executive comes out as Qualcomm’s chief marketing officer — and now loves mobile devices even moreQualcomm to launch Snapdragon Game Command for managing Android gameshttp://venturebeat.com/2012/01/05/qualcomm-to-launch-snapdragon-game-command-for-managing-android-games/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/05/qualcomm-to-launch-snapdragon-game-command-for-managing-android-games/#respondThu, 05 Jan 2012 12:30:04 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=372666Qualcomm said today that it will launch its Snapdragon GameCommand app on the Android Market on Jan. 10 at the beginning of the Consumer Electronics Show. The app is an organizer for Android games on tablets and smartphones, and its purpose is to highlight the titles that run best on a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in a […]
]]>Qualcomm said today that it will launch its Snapdragon GameCommand app on the Android Market on Jan. 10 at the beginning of the Consumer Electronics Show.

The app is an organizer for Android games on tablets and smartphones, and its purpose is to highlight the titles that run best on a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in a mobile device. In that respect, it’s a counter to Nvidia’s Tegra Zone app launched last year to highlight games that run on Nvidia chips.

The app shows that chip makers have to fuel an ecosystem not only around their chips but around the devices that use the chips. That theoretically creates market demand for more Snapdragon chips, which serve as the brains of a mobile device.

The Snapdragon GameCommand gives mobile users a way to quickly discover, organize and access the latest mobile games. And it gives developers a chance to have their games featured in the spotlight.

The phones include more gaming news and easy access to more than 100 Snapdragon GamePack featured games. The pack includes several titles running for a short time on an exclusive basis, including Fight Game Heroes from Khaeon Gamestudio; Bunny Maze 3D from Eyelead Software and Desert Winds from Southend Interactive. Qualcomm worked with those companies to make sure their games take advantage of the graphics capabilities of the Snapdragon chips.

The app allows users to access their favorite games in one spot with one group icon, accessible via a finger swipe on a smartphone or tablet. Snapdragon GameCommand also provides gamers with a source for the latest game news.

More than 60 percent of smartphone users regularly play games on their mobile devices.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/05/qualcomm-to-launch-snapdragon-game-command-for-managing-android-games/feed/0372666Qualcomm to launch Snapdragon Game Command for managing Android gamesQualcomm unveils new Snapdragon smartphone processorshttp://venturebeat.com/2011/11/16/qualcomm-unveils-new-snapdragon-smartphone-processors/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/16/qualcomm-unveils-new-snapdragon-smartphone-processors/#respondWed, 16 Nov 2011 17:15:31 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=353674Qualcomm unveiled a new class of its Snapdragon mobile processors today in an effort to maintain leadership in chips for smartphones and tablets. The company announced its Snapdragon S4 class of mobile processors and enhanced its Snapdragon S1 chips for entry-level platforms. The S4 processors are aimed at lowering design, engineering and inventory costs while […]
]]>Qualcomm unveiled a new class of its Snapdragon mobile processors today in an effort to maintain leadership in chips for smartphones and tablets.

The company announced its Snapdragon S4 class of mobile processors and enhanced its Snapdragon S1 chips for entry-level platforms. The S4 processors are aimed at lowering design, engineering and inventory costs while bringing the latest performance in 3G and 4G connection speeds to mobile data users. The company made the announcement at its analyst meeting in New York.

San Diego-based Qualcomm is trying to address the whole mobile market, from basic smartphones to high-end smartphones and tablets. The S4 chips are optimized for software that includes multimedia, connectivity, camera, display, security, power management, browsing, and natural user interface features. The S4 is a quad-core (four computing brains on one chip) chip built with a 28 nanometer manufacturing process.

Snapdragon chips are already in 300 smartphones and are in about 350 more that are under development. The heart of the new chips is the Krait central processing unit (CPU), which is built from the ground up for mobile performance and power management.

The new S4 chips include the MSM8660A, MSM8260A, MSM8630, MSM8230, MSM8627, MSM8227, APQ8060A and APQ8030. Devices based on the S4 processors will appear in early 2012. The new models of the low-end S1 chip are the MSM7225A, MSM7625A, MSM7227A and MSM7627A. Those chips are aimed at 2G and 3G phones. Rivals include Texas Instruments, Marvell, Broadcom and Nvidia.

Snapdragon has more than 225 design wins with 30 different Android smartphone manufacturers.

Smartphones are expected to sell 4 billion units between 2011 and 2015, according to estimates from Gartner, Strategy Analytics and IDC. Emerging regions are expected to be 50 percent of sales by 2015.

Qualcomm shipped more than 483 million MSMs, or modem chips, during its fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/16/qualcomm-unveils-new-snapdragon-smartphone-processors/feed/0353674Qualcomm unveils new Snapdragon smartphone processorsQualcomm launches Snapdragon GameCommand app for mobile game discoveryhttp://venturebeat.com/2011/11/16/qualcomm-launches-snapdragon-gamecommand-app-for-mobile-game-discovery/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/16/qualcomm-launches-snapdragon-gamecommand-app-for-mobile-game-discovery/#respondWed, 16 Nov 2011 12:30:24 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=353559Qualcomm is announcing today its Snapdragon GameCommand app for finding and playing mobile games on devices with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors. Qualcomm is also expanding the number of games in its Snapdragon GamePack, which highlights games that run on its processors. The GameCommand app is aimed at bringing console-like games as well as casual titles to […]
]]>Qualcomm is announcing today its Snapdragon GameCommand app for finding and playing mobile games on devices with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors.

Qualcomm is also expanding the number of games in its Snapdragon GamePack, which highlights games that run on its processors. The GameCommand app is aimed at bringing console-like games as well as casual titles to the Qualcomm platform. While the company’s main business is selling mobile chips, it sees the GamePack and GameCommand products as a way to make those chips more useful. It’s similar to how Intel invests in apps in order to make its chips more useful. It’s also similar to Nvidia’s Tegra Zone for showing off flash Nvidia-based Android games.

The company made the announcement at its analyst meeting in New York. The new games in the extended Snapdragon GamePack and the new GameCommand app are expected to hit the Android Market in early 2012. The GamePack has exclusive titles including The Ball (pictured at top) from Tripwire Interactive; Fight Game Heroes from Khaeon Gamestudio; and Galaga Special Edition from Namco Bandai Games.

The new GameCommand app provides mobile users with a way to quickly find and learn about the latest featured Snapdragon games. The app allows users to access their favorite games in one spot with one group icon, accessible via a finger swipe on a smartphone or tablet. Snapdragon GameCommand also provides gamers with a source for the latest game news.

“Qualcomm has received great user feedback since launching the Snapdragon GamePack, so we are expanding the quantity and quality of games while making them easier to locate through the launch of the Snapdragon GameCommand app,” says Raj Talluri, vice president of product management at Qualcomm.

More than 60 percent of smartphone users regularly play games on their mobile devices.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/16/qualcomm-launches-snapdragon-gamecommand-app-for-mobile-game-discovery/feed/0353559Qualcomm launches Snapdragon GameCommand app for mobile game discoveryMobileBeat Sponsor: What Qualcomm is doing for consumerhttp://venturebeat.com/2011/07/12/qualcomm-consumer-snapdragon/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/12/qualcomm-consumer-snapdragon/#respondWed, 13 Jul 2011 01:55:03 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=308888SPONSORED: At the 2011 MobileBeat conference, Qualcomm vice president of product management Raj Talluri discusses the chip maker’s focus on benefiting the end consumer. This interview is sponsored by Qualcomm. As an enterprise-facing company, what do Qualcomm’s products mean for consumers? We make the guts of the phone. We work very closely with our partners, like […]
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At the 2011 MobileBeat conference, Qualcomm vice president of product management Raj Talluri discusses the chip maker’s focus on benefiting the end consumer.

This interview is sponsored by Qualcomm.

As an enterprise-facing company, what do Qualcomm’s products mean for consumers?

We make the guts of the phone. We work very closely with our partners, like to Sony Ericsson, to deliver experiences for the end consumer. Consumers realize that you can buy a camera, you can buy an MP3 player, you can buy a navigator system, but you can just buy a phone and get all of those experiences. We work on developing those standalone device experiences such as audio, photo taking, graphics and battery conservation to create one device that is thin, light and lasts all day.

What is the biggest challenge for Qualcomm in engaging the consumer?

For Qualcomm, to launch a product that the end consumer can enjoy, we must work with a laundry list of people. Using mobile payments as an example, we spend our time interacting with partners like Google that create secure operating systems. Next we work with the operator to launch the system. We engage service providers like Paypal or Citybank to enable financial transactions. And we collaborate with phone makers like HTC to launch the app on their phone. There is a lot of plumbing that we take care of before it can reach the consumer. We create the machine.

Today, 3G is pretty widespread, but what are you doing to move the needle toward 4G?

We launched the first 4G phone, the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon, so we have the best 4G solution out there today. We focus on how to integrate, how to pull all these aspects together onto one chip. Put it together and you get lower costs, better power. We announced our integrated 4G plus apps processor called 8960, which will support Windows 8. The next generation of 4G phones that will come out in the first half of next year will all be using integrated 4G plus apps processor.

A theme of this year’s MobileBeat is mobile payments. How is Qualcomm working within this new sub-industry?

The issue with financial transactions on mobile is the limit on how much money you can move, given security parameters. We are spending time at Qualcomm to build an infrastructure that secures financial payments and lifts the limit. The infrastructure includes hardware inside the processor and software that allows applications to run inside a secure environment, which is authenticated with by a key mechanism. You’ll see products late this year or early next.

Are you partnering with anyone exciting for the consumer?

Scalado, a European company, came up with a really exciting technology that processes images in the JPEG domain very fast. We built the hardware inside our developer platform, Snapdragon, to take pictures at high speeds and compress them into the perfect shot. Scalado then built their application to complements our hardware. The app allows the user to choose a face from those high speed-taken photos and layers it smoothly on your end picture. It’s a total solution for mobile picture taking.

Tell me about Snapdragon, your platform of app developers.

Snapdragon has processors, modems, connectivity, everything needed for creating a smartphone app. When app developers create on Snapdragon, they have access to create for any device. It is the most widely used smartphone developer platform, used by 60 percent of Android developers and has 40 percent of market share. We have single core, dual-core, and quad-core development options in Snapdragon. The quad-core will come out next year.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/12/qualcomm-consumer-snapdragon/feed/0308888MobileBeat Sponsor: What Qualcomm is doing for consumerQualcomm is working to get mobile web pages to load fasterhttp://venturebeat.com/2011/04/29/qualcomm-is-working-to-get-mobile-web-pages-to-load-faster/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/04/29/qualcomm-is-working-to-get-mobile-web-pages-to-load-faster/#respondFri, 29 Apr 2011 18:48:08 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=257123Mobile web browsing can be slow and frustrating to users. It seems like there’s nothing that can be done about it, given the overburdened mobile networks of carriers that are facing increasing data usage. But Sayeed Choudhury, director of product management and web technologies at Qualcomm, says it’s possible to optimize web browsers to take […]
]]>Mobile web browsing can be slow and frustrating to users. It seems like there’s nothing that can be done about it, given the overburdened mobile networks of carriers that are facing increasing data usage.

But Sayeed Choudhury, director of product management and web technologies at Qualcomm, says it’s possible to optimize web browsers to take advantage of hardware such as Qualcomm’s mobile Snapdragon processors to deliver a better web experience. We spoke with him at VentureBeat’s recent Mobile Summit event in Sausalito, where he was a speaker.

By optimizing the software and hardware together, Choudhury says that it’s possible to make a page load faster and make it more navigable once it has loaded. Getting mobile video to play right is also important, while not consuming all of a smartphone’s battery power. That means Qualcomm works on making everything more efficient, from Javascript to rendering. This work has been happening for a couple of years, and now Javascript can run five times faster than it once did on Google’s platforms such as the Android mobile operating system and the Chrome web browser. The result is “snappier and glassy smooth” web browsing.

Check out Choudhury’s perspective on what can be done to speed up the mobile internet in the video below.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2011/04/29/qualcomm-is-working-to-get-mobile-web-pages-to-load-faster/feed/0257123Qualcomm is working to get mobile web pages to load fasterQualcomm launches a screaming-fast 2.5 Ghz mobile processorhttp://venturebeat.com/2011/02/13/qualcomm-launches-a-screaming-fast-2-5-ghz-mobile-processor/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/13/qualcomm-launches-a-screaming-fast-2-5-ghz-mobile-processor/#respondMon, 14 Feb 2011 07:17:37 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=242865Qualcomm just announced it has launched a new version of its Snapdragon mobile processor that can process data at a speed of 2.5 gigahertz. That’s as powerful as many laptop and desktop computer processors, but Qualcomm’s chip with as many as four cores, or brains, is aimed at smartphones and tablets. That means mobile devices […]
]]>Qualcomm just announced it has launched a new version of its Snapdragon mobile processor that can process data at a speed of 2.5 gigahertz. That’s as powerful as many laptop and desktop computer processors, but Qualcomm’s chip with as many as four cores, or brains, is aimed at smartphones and tablets.

That means mobile devices sold this year and early next year are likely to have just as much, if not more, computing performance as a lot of computers out there. So the new Snapdragon processors will enable a whole new generation of smartphones and tablets that can do everything from cool 3D games to displaying video from a phone on a big screen in full high-definition resolution.

Code-named Krait, the next-generation Snapdragon promises to deliver speeds of 2.5 gigahertz per core, with options for one, two or four cores. The Snapdragon family will also include four wireless capabilities — WiFi, global positioning system (GPS), Bluetooth and FM radio — in one device. It will also support near-field communications, a hot new technology that lets you wave a phone over a reader to make a purchase. And it will support stereoscopic 3D video, photo capture and playback.

Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon has 150 percent higher overall performance and 65 percent lower power consumption than currently available ARM-based CPU (central processing unit) cores. Qualcomm is able to make the big leap to this new generation because it has made a big manufacturing leap to 28 nanometer technology. Qualcomm released its 1-gigahertz Snapdragon chip with a single core in the fourth quarter of 2008 using a 65-nm technology.

The 28 nanometer technology is like a finer pencil, which can be used to etch smaller circuits on a chip. By cramming more circuits on a chip, Qualcomm is executing on the phenomenon known as Moore’s Law, named after former Intel chairman Gordon Moore, who predicted that the number of components on a chip would double every couple of years.

Qualcomm also announced its new Adreno family of graphics processing units (GPUs). The new quad-core Adreno 320 can deliver 15 times the performance of the original Adreno chip it replaces. Qualcomm says the Adreno 320 performance is similar to the quality of graphics on today’s game consoles, but at a much lower power consumption level.

The single-core Snapdragon MSM8930 chip has built-in LTE modem technology, which means it can deliver data networking speeds for mainstream smartphones at relatively low costs. The LTE technology (short for Long-Term Evolution) enables data speeds of 24 megabits a second or more in mobile phones. That’s as fast as the speed of cable modems in many homes.

The MSM8960 dual-core chip will be available in the second quarter, while the MSM8930 single-core chip and the quad-core APQ8064 chip will be available in early 2012. The APQ8064 chip in particular is aimed at tablet computers. Qualcomm made the announcement at the Mobile World Congress 2010 event in Barcelona today. We’ll have to see how rivals such as Marvell, Broadcom, Intel and Nvidia come in with their own new products this year to see who the winner will be.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/13/qualcomm-launches-a-screaming-fast-2-5-ghz-mobile-processor/feed/0242865Qualcomm launches a screaming-fast 2.5 Ghz mobile processorMicrosoft demos future Windows version running on Intel and ARM chips (video)http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/05/microsoft-demos-future-windows-version-running-on-intel-and-arm-chips-video/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/05/microsoft-demos-future-windows-version-running-on-intel-and-arm-chips-video/#commentsThu, 06 Jan 2011 05:51:46 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=236029Microsoft said earlier today that its future version of Windows will run on chips based on ARM’s chip architecture. In front of a huge crowd at the Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer showed once again that the software worked fine on test systems based on chips from Intel, Qualcomm (Snapdragon), Texas Instruments, […]
]]>Microsoft said earlier today that its future version of Windows will run on chips based on ARM’s chip architecture. In front of a huge crowd at the Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer showed once again that the software worked fine on test systems based on chips from Intel, Qualcomm (Snapdragon), Texas Instruments, and Nvidia (Tegra 2).

If these ARM-based rivals can succeed in the market with their chips, they could break Intel’s near-monopoly on Windows PCs. And if Microsoft can do it, Apple probably can too.

You can see the demo for yourself in the video. Each different chip has its advantages. The Nvidia chip, for instance, can display software with lots of rich graphics.

The significance of this can’t be understated. The demo shows that the future version of Windows is running, although there’s no telling when it will arrive. And the fact that it can run on both Intel and ARM hardware means that Microsoft stands poised to get its Windows software into PCs, phones, and tablet computers now.

]]>http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/05/microsoft-demos-future-windows-version-running-on-intel-and-arm-chips-video/feed/2236029Microsoft demos future Windows version running on Intel and ARM chips (video)Intel’s AppUp doesn’t fix app fragmentation, but it might helphttp://venturebeat.com/2010/09/14/appup-fragmentation/
http://venturebeat.com/2010/09/14/appup-fragmentation/#commentsTue, 14 Sep 2010 21:57:18 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=213371For Joe Morris, vice president of mobile content for game company Konami, the difference between having to port a game to 200 platforms and just a handful is more than enough reason to get excited over Intel launching its application-distribution platform, AppUp. “It’s extremely difficult to get our content out there on every platform and […]
]]>For Joe Morris, vice president of mobile content for game company Konami, the difference between having to port a game to 200 platforms and just a handful is more than enough reason to get excited over Intel launching its application-distribution platform, AppUp.

“It’s extremely difficult to get our content out there on every platform and do it in a financially responsible way, but that’s the only way to do it now,” Morris said. “AppUp is a huge step forward in that regard.”

AppUp provides app developers with a distribution platform for apps that use Intel’s Atom processors — which Intel hopes will show up in just about everything. The new app distribution platform already had about 450,000 users in beta before it launched today.

Intel’s latest line of Atom processors sporting the Havok engine SDK look like they could beat up Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and Apple’s A4, a chip used in the iPad and iPhone 4 in a barroom brawl. Add to that support for Adobe’s Flash technology, which about 70 percent of games on the Internet run on. With those factors, it looks like there’s room for movement toward a unified platform under Intel’s banner.

But assuming AppUp is as successful as other major distribution platforms — a big assumption — it would leave users with three or four significant marketplaces to get apps: Apple’s App Store, Google’s Android Market, and Intel’s AppUp — and no unified platform in sight. It’s probably not even expected, as both the Apple App Store and Android Market have been wildly popular with both users and developers.

Having multiple app stores is a barier to smaller developers trying to get their apps noticed. Not only does it force developers to create an app for multiple platforms, they have to market it to sometimes radically different audiences.

“You have a lot of small, independent developers that think they are going to make a trillion dollars off their latest and greatest app, and [instead they] get around $1.07 in their first month after launch because of how hard it is to be discovered,” said Eric Wittman, director of Flash platform services for Adobe.

It all depends on just how many devices the Atom processor makes it into. Intel demoed an Internet-connected treadmill, a racing bike that streamed information live to a pit crew, interactive advertisements and signs and even new ways to store photos and videos. Intel says the possibilities are endless, and they probably are — though it raises the question of whether the same app can really run on such diverse devices.

If apps can make it to even the most remote parts of everyday life, a unified platform for that alone might do enough for small and large developers alike might solve the marketing nightmare that is app fragmentation.